Broccoflower with garlic crumbs

The recipe I present here is low fat version of the deep fried cauliflower. I used broccoflower (a hybrid of broccoli and cauliflower) - for its color and also for its nutritional value. Additionally you would need garlic pods (about 6-7 sliced thin) and bread crumbs. Garlic flavored bread crumbs can also be used, though nothing can beat the aroma of fresh garlic being sauted (I think Sunita will agree with me and this recipe would be a nice entry to her "Think Garlic" Event).



Cook the broccoflower florets in salted boiling water. Drain the water and run the florets under cold water or place them in ice bowl to stop the cooking process (thanks to the food network shows). Wipe the cooked florests gently with a tissue/kitchen cloth to remove excess moisture. In a pan saute garlic slices in 2 tbsp of oil until they turn to golden brown color. Add the florets to the pan and saute until the florets are a bit crispy (about 5-6 minutes). Season with salt and pepper and any other herbs you like. For additional crunch add the bread crumbs and saute for 3-4 minutes and serve hot with ketchup or vegetable side dish. As I was finishing this writeup, I just realized - why did I go through such a pain of boiling florets, wiping them, saute them - I could have just placed the florets with garlic, bread crumbs and olive oil and bake the dish in an oven and get done with! :)

Have a nice day you all!

Savory Couscous cake

This is the first recipe that caught my eye in the "Best Ever" cookbook series. I never tried leeks before, that was also another reason for making this recipe. Leeks belong to the onion and garlic family. They are notoriously dirty - full of dirt between the leaves, do clean them properly before cooking. Remove the tough green leaves and use the bottom white part of the leeks.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup leeks chopped
1/4 cup baby tomatoes sliced
1/4 cup cheese ( any variety you like)
1/4 cup uncooked couscous


Bring 1/2 cup water to a boil. Add 1tsp olive oil, garlic powder, salt and the uncooked couscous. Turn off the heat and cover the pan and set aside for the couscous to cook. In a small non-stick pan, saute leeks and tomatoes with 1 tsp olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Add the cooked couscous with the cheese to the pan. Press down the couscous, and on low heat, allow the cheese to melt and bind the couscous together (shown in picture below). Cheese would make the couscous stay together as a cake. After about 5 - 7 minutes, the bottom of the cake would be crispier . Place the serving plate on the pan and turn over the cake (as in an upside down cake). Garnish with cilantro, tomatoes and serve.

Babycorn in Garlic Tomato Gravy

All of us have that "one" gravy recipe, where in the vegetables change but the base ingredients remain the same. This is one such gravy recipe. Mom usually makes it with lady fingers (bendakayalu). So the base is a mix of onion, garlic, tomatoes, cumin (jeelakarra in Telugu) and coriander (dhaniya powder). Chillies/Jalapeños/Chilli powder can also be added for heat. Either these ingredients can be finely chopped/minced/powdered or made to a paste as per the convenience. Here's how I made the gravy with babycorn and bell peppers (capsicum) to go with chapathis



1. 1 can Babycorn (1.5-2 cups for fresh babycorn)
2. Onions - 1 cup chopped and 1 jalapeño finely chopped
3. Garlic (4-5 pods) made into paste with 2 tbsp of jeera (can be substituted with garlic and cumin powder)
4. Capsicum /bell peppers chopped - I used one color each bell pepper (green, red and orange)
5. coriander powder - 1-1.5tbsp as per taste
6. Diced tomatoes - 1 can (tomato puree could also be used)
7. Salt and turmeric

Saute onion and jalapeño in a pan. Add the garlic jeera paste and saute for couple more minutes. Add the tomato pieces and cook until the tomato pieces wilt a bit. Add puree/capsicum pieces and babycorn, salt and turmeric.Cover the pan and lower the heat for the vegetables to cook in their own steam. Sprinkle some water if the curry is too dry. add the coriander powder. Cook for 5 more minutes, garnish with cilantro and serve hot.

When I was a novice in cooking, the stove flame would be going guns - full blown fire energy to cook the curries and I would never cover the pan! My mom saw this and told me that cooking chicken/meat or vegetables in their own steam will enhance the flavors of the curry by 10000 folds. Its a misconception that cooking curries/gravies on high flame will be quick, but actually it takes the same amount of time, because the pan is covered, the heat in the pan will accumulate in turn cooking the veggies or meat.

I am sending the recipe to ThinkSpice-Garlic event hosted by gracious sunita. Without the garlic jeera paste I don't think the gravy would taste as good.

Potato Kurma - amma's way

I dont know how myself and all my cousins got into the habit of calling grandma as amma and mothers as ma. I call both ammamma and nannamma as amma. I dont think it bothered them, may be they felt younger :) haha. So this is my ammamma's recipe. She makes it both with chicken and potato. Its a great combo with veg pulav or chapathis. I think it has a bit of kerala cuisine in it. Nevertheless its a snap to make this potato (aloo in hindi and bangala dumpa in telugu)kurma.



Ingredients:

2 cups of potatoes cubed
1 large onion (made into paste with 1 or 2 chillies for heat)
1/2 cup yogurt + 1/2 cup coconut milk
2 bay leaves
4-6 cardamom pods ( I like cardamom. Reduce the amount if you donot like it)
1 cinnamon stick and few cloves
Salt to taste and pinch of turmeric

Saute bay leaves, mashed cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and cloves in 2 tbsp of oil for a minute (until you smell the fragrant masalas). Add in the onion paste and saute until it looses the raw onion smell (about 5 minutes). Add the potato cubes, salt and turmeric - saute for couple of minutes, cover the pan and lower the heat setting to "medium-low" and allow the potatoes to cook in their own steam. Stir often so that the potatoes donot stick to the pan. If you notice the potatoes dry up, sprinkle some water, do not add too much. The potatoes should look as shown in photograph when done. Turn off the heat and add yogurt and coconut milk mix to the potatoes. Serve the potato (bangaladumpa) kurma hot with roti/chapathi's or vegetable biryani.




I also made babycorn capsicum curry to go with chapathis - shall post the recipe in couple of days.

Toor dal soup with lemongrass

What can I say about toor dal (kandi pappu in telugu)! Pappu with Aavakaya pickle mixed with rice and ghee has totally out of this world taste. Toor dal is made with many combinations like spinach, lime juice, mango, tomato, Gongura, Chintachiguru (tender tamarind leaves - thanks sowmya), Methi leaves etc. My favourite combination is pappu with mango. The sour taste of mango accentuates the dal taste. Second follows pappu and lemon combination for the same reason.

Lemongrass, the second ingredient in this dish is not commonly used in indian cuisine. Lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and galangal combination is used in many thai soups. Lemongrass has a rooty lemony flavor. So, I thought why not add lemongrass instead of lemon in the pappu combination - and it turned out to be awesome. So inspired with the soup theme of lemongrass, I made the lemongrass toor dal soup. The recipe also goes to the JFI toor dal even hosted by Linda's Out of the garden. I am looking forward for other toor dal recipes by all the wonderful food bloggers out there.

Ingredients:
1 cup toor dal (pressure cook in 1.5 cups of water)
4 1 inch lemongrass stalks ( remove the top hard layer of the lemongrass and use the inner layers)
1 tsp garlic minced
2 red chillies
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin
juice of 1 lemon (instead of kaffir leaves)
1/2 tsp ginger minced (instead of galangal)

In a deep pan, heat 1 tsp of oil and add the mustard seeds, cumin, red chillies, garlic and ginger. After the mustard seeds start to splutter, add 3 cups of water. Bruise the lemongrass a bit - so that the flavors come out. Add the lemongrass and lemon juice to the water, and let it boil for few minutes. Add the toor dal and adjust salt as per taste. Enjoy the soup with warm toast. The mixture can be boiled further to get pappu consistency and can be eaten with rice. Lemongrass cannot be eaten so remove it before serving.

Quinoa with Asparagus and Chickpeas

There are some days like today when I become too picky about what I eat - ie become totally a health freak! and thats when I try to follow tips from books like "Chasing Life" by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He mentioned one's plate has to be filled with food with all the colors of the rainbow. So my veggies - tomatoes (red), asparagus (green). Beets (purple) can be added too - but i didnt here - I dont have them at home now. I can make a rice dish with these veggies - but instead chose a healthy option - Quinoa

I first tasted Quinoa orange mint salad at Whole foods market and its become one of my favourite salads. Quinoa is a high protein, tasty grain which is easy to cook. It is high in fiber contentnt and essential linoleic acid that are required by the body. Quinoa has twice as much protien as the same amount of rice. It is light and crunchy at the sametime. Many desserts and salads can be made with it. The rooty flavaour of asparagus and the savoury taste in the sun-dried tomatoes combined with chickpeas will be a great addiiton to quinoa.



Ingredients:
Quinoa (prewashed) - 1 cup
asparagus - cut into 1/2 inch pieces - 1/2 cup
sundried tomatoes - 1/4 cup
chickpeas - canned - 1/4 cup
garlic - minced 1 tbsp
olive oil - 1 tbsp
cumin powder - 1tsp
mint and cilantro for garnish
Heat olive oil in a pan and saute garlic for a minute. Add the asparagus, sundried tomatoes and chickpeas and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add 2 cups of water, salt, cumin powder, 2 tbsp of lemon juice and quinoa. After the water starts to boil, cover the pan and simmer the mixture until quinoa absorbs all the water(takes about 15 minutes). Quinoa (initially white) turns transparent and a small white spiral sprouts of the seeds(look at the closeup). I had this salad with yogurt - tasted very healthy and very yummy. I will be sending this recipe to Suganya's Tasty Palettes Veganism Event. Its so amazing that so many food blog events are being organized and all of us can share the wonderful recipes and food experiences.

Corn bread with rosemary and sundried tomatoes

Corn bread is one of the side dishes in the thanksgiving dinner. I dont remember which show i saw this recipe in - is it emeril or rachel - i am not sure - but somehow knew(ie heard on food network) that rosemary will be a great addition to corn bread. And oh my god! when the corn bread was baking - the smell was awesome.

Ingredients:
1. Corn bread mix (I used marie calenders) - 5 cups
2. Sweet corn (Frozen or Canned) - 2 cups
3. Sun dried tomatoes - 1 cup
4. Few sprigs of rosemary (3 tbsp chopped)




Mix 1.5 cups of water for every cup of cornbread mix(as per the instructions on the package). Make sure the batter is smooth and there are no lumps. Add the rest of the ingredients -corn, sundried tomatoes and rosemary (chopped finely). If you are using frozen corn kernels - thaw them before mixing into the batter.Bake the corn bread at 375 F for 30 minutes - I have a picture of the corn bread baking in the oven.

To test if the corn bread is done - poke a knife/fork through it and if it comes out clean it means the bread is done. After the bread cools down - cut into pieces and serve.

Easy potato fry

I feel this easy recipe is a favorite for everyone pressed for time. This is a very common recipe amongst the south Indians. I learnt this recipe from my mother - this is her favourite one for sure because it doesn't take much time to make - especially when you have to manage a hospital(she is a physician) and then home. I recommend a non-stick pan with a lid for this recipe.

Use red Potatoes for this recipe as they dont get mushed up when cooked. For more information on what potatoes to use for baking, boiling etc look up at http://ochef.com/167.htm.

Peel the skin and cut the potatoes(2 medium sized) into evenly sized pieces. In a non-stick pan, add 2tbsp oil, allow few seconds for the oil to heat up. Add 1 tsp of mustard seeds(aavalu), 1 tsp of jeera, 10 curry leaves(karvepaku-you can reduce the amount if you dont like them), 3 dried red chillies, 1 tsp urud dal. Allow the mustard seeds to splutter and then add potatoes. mix well, add salt as per your taste and pinch of turmeric. Fry the mix for a minute and cover the pan. Lower the heat to Medium low.

[[[Additional water is not required for this dish.The water in the potatoes turns to steam and this steam condenses on the lid and inturn goes back to the pan to cook the potatoes. ]]]

Allow the potatoes to cook on medium low with lid on for about 5-10 minutes. The fry is done. Eat along with hot cooked rice and tomato rasam.

Grilled Tofu with French Dressing

I wanted to do someting different on tofu, than just crumbled pieces on salad. Also at the same time the dish has to be easy. Another reason for preparing this dish is I need a tasty vegetarian protein rich dish.


For the dish,I used MorNu extra firm tofu and fat free french dressing from kraft foods, and some fresh ground pepper.The Tofu packet has 4 slices. I use 1 tbsp dressing per slice. Marinate the tofu slices in french dressing and ground pepper for about 30min to 1 hour and grill for 3-5 minutes on each side. You can use PAM spray to avoid tofu from sticking to the grill.

1 serving of this dish - 1 slice tofu grilled with 1 tbsp fat free french dressing. The calories for the PAM spray/oil arent counted here.
Calories - 70
Carb - 6.1 g
Protein - 5.3 g
Fat - 0.7 g

I like tofu a lot but it has a dull flavor. The french dressing added the needed extra zing to the tofu. The dish is super easy and healthy.